Last week Bill Hendry inquired about the Organizational Learning Inventory
(OLI) as described in an article by Marilyn Darling in the "Systems
Thinker". Marilyn responded with an example of how she recently used the
OLI in a manufacturing organization. As one of the original developers of
the OLI, I want to comment on one aspect of the OLI and other such tools.
A critical aspect of instruments like the OLI is not so much what data
they generate but how they do so. Unlike some other instruments on the
market, the OLI is not a self-administered, survey questionnaire that
produces data which are computer analyzed. Rather the OLI is designed to
generate dialogue within a workgroup or team. Guided by a licensed
facilitators, such as Marilyn or myself, a group follows the OLI to create
its "learning profile". The "learning profile" provides a starting point
for action planning to build learning capability but the generation of the
profile is itself an intervention! Although not specificilly derived from
the five disciplines, the OLI does require team learning and systems
thinking to elicit mental models and create a shared vision of learning
capability. The OLI is an instrument for empowerment in that it
recognizes a team's own knowledge of its learning processes and leverage
points for change.
Tony DiBella
AJDiBella@AOL.COM
--Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>